Despite initial opposition from the provinces, it
seems that Justin Trudeau’s pledge to bring in “Big CPP” will
indeed become a reality. Larger monthly Canada Pension Plan payments
for seniors will be coming our way shortly, along with larger monthly
contributions from both ordinary workers and their employers. Ontario
premier Kathleen Wynne, no doubt eager to discuss anything other than
the fact her approval ratings had suck to a ghastly eighteen percent,
wasted no time in dashing before the nearest news cameras to announce
how delighted she was by this hard fought victory she and her party
had championed for so long. In a near miracle, Trudeau himself
actually looked almost dignified by comparison, but he too lauded
this as a victory for workers’ futures and their financial
security.

Of course, this is all sheer an utter poppycock of
the highest order. From the very beginning of this debate on
expanding the existing federal pension program the dialogue was
fraught with misconceptions and plain old fashioned lies. The most
foremost of course is the idea that Canada somehow faces a retirement
crisis that the imperiled workers of today must be saved from. Thanks
to our existing CPP, combined with the supplementary Old Aged
Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement programs, Canada has one of
the lowest levels of seniors living destitute in the Western world.
The existing social safety net already creates a near rock-solid
basement for retirement income that is firmly above the poverty line,
so the idea that an expanded CPP benefit is needed to save the next
generation of the elderly from a fate of scavenging dumpsters and
sleeping rough on park benches is absurd to say the least.

Some future seniors, indeed many if we are honest,
who lived beyond their means throughout all of their working lives
may very well face a reducing in their disposable incomes and
standards and living in retirement due to insufficient savings. That
is a very different situation, however, than the disingenuous fantasy
being put forward by the advocates of an expanded CPP who argue that
it is meant to ward off a future of the elderly being consigned to
the poor house. There is such a thing as personal responsibility, and
while society does have a duty to keep the old and infirm from
poverty in their old age it most certainly does not have an
obligation to finance the high living retirement dream of biannual
trips around the world and winter homes in Florida that far too many
of us have come to feel we are entitled to. Moreover, this is an
example of the worst instincts of nanny-state liberalism; the idea
that the government always knows better than the people and that
ordinary folks must be compelled to do what is best for them
regardless of their actual wishes. Not putting twenty percent of your
income away for retirement? No worries, the government is here to
make you!

Equally absurd is the idea that this expanded benefit
will actually lead to a more prosperous retirement for a great many
Canadians. A report by the CD Howe Institute, from which none other
than Finance Minister Bill Morneau hailed from before he underwent an
apparently radical personality transplant and joined Trudeau’s
Liberals, observed rather accurately that if you do not have the
means to save today, then the government demanding a bigger CPP
contribution off of your pay cheque will not magically lead to you
making more money. Instead those living pay cheque to pay cheque will
simply have to tighten their belts ever so more as they try to get
by, while those who do have the means to save will simply decrease
the funds they already put away towards existing RRSPs and TFSAs and
other savings vehicles.

This, of course, draws attention to the fact that as a
long-term savings plan CPP has some very serious drawbacks when
compared to other options already available to Canadians. Should I
die tomorrow, any funds currently held in my private savings go
towards my family whereas money that I’ve contributed towards the
Canada Pension Plan simply disappears into the ether that is the
government’s coffers. Private savings can also be put towards
purposes other than retirement that are equally important to most
Canadians, whether this is a down payment on a home, paying for a
child’s education, or simply covering expenses in the event of job
loss or a leave of absence due to injury. Should I become unemployed
tomorrow, the money I currently hold in my Tax Free Savings Account
can be used to pay for my rent and put food on the table until I am
able to find new employment for myself whereas I have no such option
to draw upon the money I have contributed towards CPP.

Big CPP is quite simply an unnecessary solution
to a problem that does not exist. The decision of the forge ahead
regardless of this reality is one that will leave future Canadians
with a future retirement that is no more secure than it is already,
and a present that will have less take home pay and fewer job
prospectus as employers doubtlessly reduce hiring to compensate for
the increased costs that will accompany the Canada Pension Plan
expansion. Far from a hard fought victory, this is instead a
self-inflicted wound that will haunt us for many years to come.